Tag Archives: dinner

I know some of you are curious about what bloggers eat on a daily basis, and I haven’t shared any food posts in quite some time now. So here you go, and I promise that some day I’ll buy a real camera and learn how to take more interesting pictures of food 😉

I tend to go through eating phases where I end up eating the same things over and over again, so you may notice some repetition here. I always go on a big tomato kick when the weather gets warm, and smoothies, other salads, and fish also tend to make more frequent appearances. So without further ado, here are some foods that I’ve been eating lately*:

Tomato based salads:

This has been my obsession lately! Caprese salad: tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil, and balsamic. I’m pretty sure I added a grilled chicken breast to this to make it a main dish for lunch.

This has been a frequent choice lately as well: tomato, mozzarella (notice a theme?), avocado. I have also added grilled chicken to this for a main course as well. Excellent cool salad on a warm day!

Baked White Fish:

My mother gave us a bunch of Halibut so we ate quite a bit of this a couple of weeks ago. Plus, lighter white fish and veggies with a fresh beet salad makes a great and easy dinner when it’s too hot outside for something heavier! About half of an avocado on the side here too, for a little fat of course.

Bell Peppers, raw and roasted:

This was a picnic lunch that I packed for Will and me one sunny afternoon. Bell peppers with hummus, fig crackers with brie and fig spread, cherries, blueberries, and some other snacks not pictured. Yum!

I’ve also been doing a lot of roasted peppers lately. This is grilled chicken, beets, roasted red peppers with goat cheese, all with some homemade basil-cashew pesto. This was one of my absolute favorite meals lately!

We actually just had this last night: roasted peppers making another appearance with goat cheese (such a good combination!), roasted asparagus, and coconut crusted salmon. This was delicious, but I’m not going to lie I was still hungry about a half hour after eating, so I clearly needed a little more; I definitely could have eaten more of that delicious salmon! (Don’t worry, I had a good snack) 🙂

Turkey meatballs have also been very frequent. I bake the meatballs and then let them simmer for a while in tomato-basil pasta sauce with some red peppers. It’s a great meal to have on hand for lunches during the week, and can be eaten alone or paired with something like spaghetti squash (or real spaghetti of course). I tend to just throw a bunch into a bowl and eat that for lunch with a handful of almonds or something similar.

And of course: Eggs!

I’ve been eating a ton of eggs lately. Usually 3 per day, and usually served like this: 3 eggs scrambled with a little bit of cheese, served with salsa and 1/2 avocado.

*I just want to remind everyone that this is just a selection of foods that I’ve been loving lately, all taken from meals throughout the past couple of weeks. This does not at all represent a day’s worth of food for me, as these almost all come from different days. Please do not use this to compare what you’re eating; everyone’s needs are different when it comes to food and portions.

Cheers! What foods have you been loving lately? Are there specific foods that you gravitate towards more often when the weather gets warm?

Before we get to the food, a few random thoughts to start off the day:

The Red Sox had opening day yesterday… Baseball is Baaaaaaack!! After last year’s season collapse, it took me a while to be ready to even think about the Sox again. But now that it’s spring, I’m ready, and Fenway is calling my name (Although I’m still a little sniffly over the retirements of Tek and Wake). The Red Sox may be underdogs this season, but who doesn’t love a good underdog story, right?

Thanks, fellas

Although I’m aware that I might be the only person left on the face of the earth who watches American Idol, I can’t tell you enough how much I love Phillip Phillips (Yes, that’s really his name). He’s AMAZING. Seriously, check him out, and then tell me how right I am. That kid rocks.

The few weeks in Boston when all of the trees start to blossom is one of my absolute favorite times of year. When Boston Common is filled with white and pink blossoms everywhere, there is almost no place I’d rather be, and right now there are more blossoming every day. Just look at this!

Love love love

It’s Easter weekend which means that there will be plenty of easter-egg hunts canceled because of rowdy parents. (Click on it, really, it’s ridiculous). I swear, what is wrong with people? If I ever have kids and I get so competitive at an Easter Egg Hunt that it gets cancelled, please put me in time out. Permanently.

And now, on to my actual post:

The other night, I made some pretty kick-ass Salmon Burgers, so even though I would love to be selfish and keep my recipe to myself, I am going to be generous and share it with all of you. This is a super easy and quick meal, great for mid-week when you don’t have much time, and healthy too!

Spices to taste: I used Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute (Yes, that’s really what it’s called). This was a recent purchase and a definite WIN!

1 Egg

2 Tbs Hummus – I used Spinach Artichoke Hummus**

*Note: I didn’t measure anything, so these are all estimates. That’s just how I roll. Sorry! I also usually chop up some garlic to throw in there but didn’t this time because I was feeling lazy.

**My super-secret ingredient is no longer super-secret. I used this flavor of hummus because it was all I had on hand, but I’m sure any flavor variety would do. It definitely adds a little extra flavor and some great moisture to the mix though.

What you need to do:

If you’ve never dealt with canned salmon, it can be kind of disgusting if you’re not expecting what comes out of that can. Be prepared to have to pull the spine and bones off of the fish. Yep, I told you, disgusting. It does come off very easily though, and the bones are generally so soft that even if you leave a few behind, you’ll never know the difference. I clean off all of the skin and oddly colored bits of fish as well, but you don’t have to do that if you’re not crazy like me.

Mash up all ingredients together…I don’t really care what order you put them in.

Form the patties by hand. The ingredients above will make about 5 small patties, or about 3 regular sized patties. I would suggest doubling the recipe if feeding more than 2 people, especially if you want leftovers.

Grill em up! I cook mine on the Foreman grill, but you could just as easily cook them on a regular grill, or even in a pan on the stovetop.

I served mine up over a bed of baby spinach with a sprinkling of feta, and a side of roasted broccoli/cauliflower.

DOUBLE YUM

Suggested add-ons: These are excellent with slivers of avocado on top, and if serving as a regular burger on a bun, avocado, lettuce, tomato, feta, and hummus all add to the flavor very well!

Do you have any other add-ons you usually put on your salmon burgers? Have you had salmon burgers before? How do you feel about baseball season starting up again, and do I have any Sox fan readers out there? Does anyone actually watch American Idol or am I really the only one?

I totally missed the boat this week on What I Ate Wednesday, the foodie-voyeuristic trend of the healthy living blogosphere. Not that I’ve participated in one of these yet, and I don’t have any definite plan of doing so in the future, but I did have some food pictures all ready to post this week.

And then life happened.

This week has been a whirlwind (Wait…it’s ONLY Thursday??) and on top of a busy schedule full of late nights at work, I also have an exam on Friday that I’m trying to prep for. So that means.. You guessed it… No time for blogging.

Cue: Sad puppy dog face

However, here I am with a quickie post on this beautiful Thursday because I just can’t stay away!

Since I knew this was going to be a crazy week from the get-go, I knew that I would have to do a little bit of prep on Sunday and Monday in order to actually have food to eat for the rest of the week. So THIS is what I did:

Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry

First, I went to the grocery store and loaded up on an assortment of veggies… Bell peppers, mushrooms, green cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. These were all chopped and the peppers, broccoli and cauliflower were sent into the large fry pan first with a little bit of coconut oil, while the chicken was cooking separately.

Ooh..Colorful!

Into the pan they go…

Once these got to be a little bit tender, in went the mushrooms and cabbage to round out the veggies, and I also added the chicken and Thai Peanut sauce at this point.

All of this simmered together for a little while until the veggies were tender and it became one big mess of Thai-Peanut flavored goodness.

I used this San-J Thai Peanut sauce, which was very good!! If you’re going to go the store bought route, I definitely recommend this. It’s gluten free, has no artificial anything, and the ingredient list is short. Yes, it has high sodium but anything with a soy-sauce base is going to, which is ok in my book sometimes.

And because I have NO time this week, I made a crap ton of this stuff to last me. I ended up getting 3 full meals out of it served on a bed of brown rice. I also saved a bunch of the cooked veggies before the peanut sauce went in, so that I could make a personal sized Veggie Flatbread Pizza later on in the week, using a Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Flat Bread.

These things are Perfect for quick personal sized pizzas!

Finding ways to transform your meals and reuse ingredients is key when cooking ahead of time and in large quantities. I knew that I would need pre-made dinners all week, but also knew that I wouldn’t want to be eating exactly the same flavors every. single. day. So I got a little creative! Since there are literally a million and a half things you can do with cooked veggies, having a bunch of them made at the beginning of the week is a great idea when you know you won’t have a ton of free time coming your way.

And before I forget, I also made these coconut almond flour pancakes from Clean Eating Chelsea. Chelsea caught my attention with these about a week or two ago, and I couldn’t wait to try them. I think the name says it all, but they are DELICIOUS. And filling too!! If you’re looking for a good pancake recipe that will stick with you and completely satisfy, than look no further. I can’t show you any pictures of mine because they were a complete visual fail, but just trust me that they were scrumptious! (Or better yet, make them yourself and test them out!!)

Do any of you have to do massive food prep to start the week? Did anyone eat Pie yesterday for Pi Day? Happy Eating everyone!

I’m going to start this off by saying I’m not the most adventurous of eaters.

But it’s not for lack of trying. I have gotten much better over the past few years as Will has been able to convince me to try many new things, most of which I’ve really enjoyed. My biggest roadblock when it comes to new foods actually has nothing to do with taste though, and has everything to do with texture.

Case In Point: the Head Cheese I tried a couple of weeks ago. Everyone else was raving about the delicious ham flavor, while I couldn’t get past the slimy, pasty texture without almost gagging.

One bite was enough for me. One and done.

However, on Wednesday night, Will came home with something a little bit suspicious for us to cook for dinner. It was something that I’ve never even heard of before, but you know what? I LOVED it. Aren’t you curious what this mystery food was?

Squid Ink Pasta

YES!!!!

Now, even though it was not especially appetizing to look at, I didn’t even hesitate on this one. Maybe it’s because I was ravenous after a long day, or maybe I was just in the mood for some iodine, but whatever it was, we got cooking right away.

First, we chopped up some onions and garlic and sauteed those with a touch of butter while the pasta was cooking.

Once the pasta was done, that went into the onion mix as well.

Ooh, Steamy!

But thats not all…

We had actual squid meat too!

MMmmmmmm… Tentacles!!

When everything was done, we served the pasta up with some roasted green beans, roasted asparagus that we had left over from the night before, and some roasted chicken.

YUM-O

I ended up eating about 3/4 of this. If I hadn’t gotten so gosh darn full, I would have eaten the whole thing. It was all so delicious!

Now, if you’re like me and have never heard of or tried squid ink pasta, yes, it is actually made with the ink that squid secrete, along with some eggs, flour, and a little salt. I’m really not sure how they get the ink, so if there are any animal activists reading this, I’m sorry if I’ve done something wrong?! Surprisingly though, the pasta only had the very slightest hint of a seafood flavor, and was not “fishy” at all. It was a little bit salty, and did I mention it was delicious? The squid itself was actually not fishy either, and was just a little bit chewy with a mildly tangy flavor.

When all is said and done, this is definitely something I’d eat again and would also recommend to anyone who’s curious! Are any of you especially adventurous with food? What’s the weirdest food you’ve tried and liked? Is anyone else picky about texture like I am?

Welcome!

Welcome to I Train Therefore I Eat! I'm Stephanie Rondeau MS, ATC, CSCS, CHC, and I'm a certified health coach and personal trainer in Boston, MA. My goal is to motivate and inspire, and to help people lead healthier, happier lives, free of food guilt and deprivation.I offer personal training, bootcamp classes, and health coaching services both locally and for distance clients. I hope you enjoy what you find here, and please feel free to contact me for more information on services. Welcome, and I hope you stick around for a while!

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